Word: saarinen
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1940-1949
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...design was announced: a stainless steel, streamlined, 590-ft.-high arch to rise beside the Mississippi on a site which was formerly occupied mostly by old warehouses. The arch, with a "funicular elevator and observation corridor," had first reared in the mind of a talented Michigan architect named Eero Saarinen, who, with his father Eliel, is a frequent winner of architectural competitions. His prize this time: $40,000 and a warm recommendation to Washington. (Congress must approve the "Jefferson National Expansion Memorial," as it is to be called, and put up most of the estimated $30 million cost...
...Saarinen's plans, drawn up with the help of his wife (a sculptor) and three aides, called for a tree-dotted, 80-acre area around the arch with two museums, an open-air theater, a tea terrace, a frontier village and five sculptural monuments. The arch itself, said proud St. Louisans, would mark their city like the Eiffel Tower or the Washington Monument...
...prizewinning furniture, which would probably raise no cheers in Grand Rapids, was a plywood table and chair with rod-thin, chrome-plated legs. They were designed by California's solemn, earnest Charles Eames, 39, onetime pupil of famed Finnish modernist Eliel Saarinen. Eames, who designed molded plywood splints for the Navy during the war, is a man who believes that utility is beauty's only garment. He finds the kitchen and bathroom the most beautiful rooms in most U.S. homes. By the same token, Designer Eames explains, "when a chair is comfortable it becomes beautiful...
...merely that he objects to intelligent, experienced students of cities expressing an opinion in a field in which he is trying to secure full control?" Barbara Lewis of Trenton, N.J. compared Moses to a pulp magazine reader who presumes to attack Shakespeare and Tolstoy. "The genius of Saarinen and Gropius will fortunately long survive this stupid Philistine outburst. Intelligent Americans will blush to think that this is the reception we accord distinguished European artists, and that the grossness of Mr. Moses is the measure of our understanding of city planning." Cried one Bernard Mazel: "[Moses' article] sounded like...
Great Architects Saarinen, Gropius, Wright maintained an Olympian silence...